Eva and Eve: A Search for My Mother's Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind

by Julie Metz

In this unforgettable and “essential feminist memoir of women’s lives” (Sarah Wildman, author of Paper Love ) the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Perfection unearths her mother’s hidden past in in Nazi-occupied Austria.

To Julie Metz, her mother, Eve, was the quintessential New Yorker. Eve rarely spoke about her childhood and it was difficult to imagine her living anywhere else except Manhattan, where she could be found attending Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera or inspecting a round of French triple crème at Zabar’s.

After her mother passed, Julie discovered a keepsake book filled with farewell notes from friends and relatives addressed to a ten-year-old girl named Eva. This long-hidden memento was the first clue to the secret pain that Julie’s mother had carried as a refugee and immigrant from Nazi-occupied Vienna, shining a light on “a story of political repression, terror, and dissolution...full of astonishing and unlikely twists of fate showing again that individual destiny may be the greatest mystery of all” (Dani Shapiro, author of Inheritance ).

“A gripping and intimate wartime account with piercing contemporary relevance” ( Kirkus Reviews ), Eva and Eve lyrically traces one woman’s search for her mother’s lost childhood while revealing the resilience of our forebears and the sacrifices that ordinary people are called to make during history’s darkest hours.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Holocaust, World War II, Biography Memoir

1 pages, Audio CD

First published April 6, 2021

About the author

Julie Metz is the New York Times bestselling author of PERFECTION and the forthcoming EVA AND EVE . She has written for publications including the New York Times, Salon, Dame, Slice, Coastal Living, and Glamour. Her essays have been included in the anthologies THE MOMENT and THE HOUSE THAT MADE ME. She lives with her family and two cats in New York's Hudson Valley. She reads as many books as she can.

You can find out more about her writing life at: juliemetz.com

You can see Julie's book cover design at:
metz design.com

Reviews

[TarHeelReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eva and Eve is a powerful memoir based on the author’s mother’s childhood in Nazi-occupied Austria. It may be nonfiction because it actually happened, but it reads like the most engaging and compelling fiction.

Julie Metz doesn't learn of her mother’s challenging upbringing in Austria until after she passes away when she finds a book filled with notes from friends and family addressed to Eva. From there, Julie traces her mom’s family’s history back to Austria where she finds a story of survival.

This is a beautiful book, a glorious tribute to Julie’s mom and her family, and a powerful story that left its mark on me. My heart aches for Eva throughout her life, becoming a mom, and never sharing about her harrowing start in life.

I received a gifted copy.

Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate writing reviews for memoirs that didn't work for me. Who am I to judge how someone else chooses to tell their story? However, I didn't enjoy Metz's memoir of her mother's Holocaust escape, and there are two main reasons why.

Metz ventures into some extended historical fiction sections about her mother and grandparents. Some of it makes sense, imagining the conversation her grandparents may have had with the man who granted them their US visas and thus their way out. Others make less sense, such as (no joke) a very detailed, erotic depiction of her grandparents' wedding night. I mean, did she know what sex acts they engaged in, or what the heck was she trying to do here??? I wondered what this added to the narrative until she mentioned a belated revelation that her parents' relationship was not as perfect as she believed as a child. Perhaps she was fictionalizing these characters ancestors to reclaim that sense of stability children of happily married parents can experience. Overall, however, I found these sections detracted from the memoir because their presence shows just how little Metz was able to uncover about her mother's family in Vienna and their escape from the Holocaust. Her story might have been better served as a series of articles or as a novel.

Though published a year ago today (coincidence!), Eva and Eve already feels very dated with Metz's frequent references to the state of US politics in the late 2010s. That president, whom Metz gleefully despises, is out of office now. Her hyper-focus on him, with a few nods toward other alt-right groups rising in European countries, threads the whole book together, yet Metz is supposedly discussing her mother's life (Eve/a died long before 2016) and the Holocaust (need I say, Trump was born after the end of WWII, despite her comparisons to You-Know-Whom). And she's telling the story of her own research trips, most of which happened before 2016, too. I don't get into personal politics on here, but...ma'am, take to Twitter to air your political opinions. Or write another book just about them. In a section at the end, Metz proudly relates how she confronted people on a plane about having the audacity to discuss their political opinions in public. Instead of joining the conversation, perhaps raising questions or (gasp!) listening to them as a conversation partner, she shuts them down. Now, let it be said that Metz and I align a on more political issues than the people she unkindly silenced. I could wax on about how Metz was employing tactics of alienation and silence not dissimilar to those employed by 20th-century fascists. Yet, I won't. I'll just leave it at this: I have a hard time when authors make it clear that they only love certain types of people, and despise the rest. Even (especially) when I'm "on their side." Kindness and humility have never been in fashion, but they are worth having, unlike Metz's hollow sectarianism. This is what really spoiled the whole book for me. It was worse than reading her 50 Shades of My Newlywed Grandparents section.

There are dozens of better Holocaust memoirs (and Holocaust survivors' childrens' memoirs) out there to learn from. Here are two better ones I've read just this year:

When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father's War and What Remains by Ariana Neumann
Night by Elie Wiesel

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway from Atria Books. I was looking forward to reading this story of Eva/Eve escaping Nazi-occupied Vienna as a child and becoming the quintessential New Yorker.

It seems Julie Metz and her mother were never very close so she never asked her mother for details of her early life. After her mother's death in 2006 Julie finds a keepsake box she did not know her mother had. She becomes intrigued with her mother's history and over the next (about 15) years researches what she can and makes several trips to Austria for investigations. Some of what she found is very intriguing and informative as to what is available to someone doing this kind of research.

At one point she goes through "pictures" and is very clear on what pictures are real and what ones she is imagining. As the book continues on though she seems to just invent her mother's history without much basis in fact and without making clear that she has moved into inventing.

A big point loser on this book for me was from beginning to end she is Trump bashing. Her mother came over here after being persecuted in her own country, was very accepted and successful but Julie wants to bash Trump, who did not become President until 10 years after her mother passed away?

I was willing at the first bashing in the beginning to ignore it and finished the book. I was fuming by the time I was finished. Julie's comparison of anything going on in the USA to what Jewish families went through under the Nazis is totally off base and trivializes their suffering. I cannot believe that the publisher did not point out to Julie that her politics had no place in this story. President Trump was a strong supporter of LEGAL immigration, which is the process by which her mother came into the country. Julie's political views just did not belong in this book and Eva/Eve's story suffers because of them being thrown in. I think Julie needs to change her TV station and start dealing with some facts. I would not recommend this book to anyone wanting to get Eva's true story, much is fabricated as other reviewers have pointed out. Quite disappointed.

[Zibby Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of how the author's mother's family, the Singers, were a Jewish family in Vienna during the war and how they got out in 1940. One of the stories is about how a machine saved her grandfather's life. He ran a factory that manufactured packaging for the pharmaceutical industry. One of the items they made was a paper fan, which is still being produced today for the homeopathic medicine industry. They put medicine in the channels and fold each pouch separately for doses. The Nazis considered it essential for the war effort. One of the best scenes in the book was when the author reunited with this machine.

The author paints a picture of Vienna and the Jewish community. The classiness and glamor and the sophistication of the city. The author gave us the best picture of Vienna itself, which became its own character. I was so riveted by and immersed in this book. I read it slowly because the sentences were so beautiful, the way that the author writes and conjures up images. Part of what made this book so compelling is not just the story itself, but how it is told in such a visual way,

To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at:
https://zibbyowens.com/transcript/jul...

[Mary Jackson _TheMaryReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was reading this and it was as if I was reading a fiction book it was so well written. And the family history was unbelievably well done.
I did not want to put this book down. I was so enthralled with every word.
This is a 4 star must read.
The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.

[Debra Pawlak · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given an advance reading copy (arc) of this book by the publisher and NetGalley.com in return for a fair review. Going in to this book, I was under the impression that it was about the author's mother who, as a young child, escaped Vienna with her parents after the Nazi occupation, in other words an historical nonfiction book. Unfortunately, that is not what I found. It was part memoir on the author's side, which was very distracting, and much of Eva's story was fictionalized. In addition, the author chose to take various political jabs throughout the book, which jolted me right out of the story every single time. What genre was Metz trying to write in? Fiction? Nonfiction? Memoir? Political? I couldn't decide. Having said all of that, Metz is in essence a good writer. Her fictional chapters were well written and interesting. Her mother's story was also fascinating and well researched. Eva's escape was harrowing with many setbacks and unexpected twists and turns. She and her parents were lucky to have gotten out when they did. Suffice it to say that if the author had opted to write an historical novel about her mother's journey, it probably would have been stellar.

[Haleigh Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of this book was difficult for me to navigate through because I felt that the story jumped around a lot and I was becoming confused; It definitely took me awhile to read the first half of this book. The second half was amazing and I couldn’t put it down.

Julie Metz tells the story of her Grandfather, Grandmother, and her mother’s narrow escape from the Nazi’s in Vienna. This story is both amazing and heartbreaking at the same time. I was saddened at the unfortunate similarities between the current racism occurring in the United States and Hitler’s anti-Semitism views during WWII.

Overall this book was an eye opener and I highly recommend. Thank you Net Galley for the advanced readers copy of this book.

[Adelaide Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5* A autora, filha de uma judia austríaca, após a morte desta vai à procura da sua história ao mesmo tempo que vai relatando a sua.
É um livro biográfico intercalado entre o passado e os dias de hoje

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

In “Eva and Eve,” memoirist Julie Metz pieces together details about her mother’s life before escaping Nazi-occupied Austria. In 1940, at age 9, “Eva” takes what she calls “the last boat out of Italy,” and emigrates with her parents to Brooklyn, New York.

Here in America, she builds her life as “Eve.” Yet rarely discusses her past. Then after Eve's death, Metz finds a hidden journal from 1940 that becomes the catalyst for this book.

In this memoir, Metz tells her mother’s (mostly) untold story of emigration. In doing so, Metz better understands her deceased mother. And their complicated mother-daughter relationship.

Metz writes, “Like many Jews of my generation, I’d grown up under a dark cloud of memory. Now I wanted to pierce the cloud and understand the Vienna my mother knew as a child, the terrifying years under National Socialism, and then her life as a wartime refugee and immigrant—to immerse myself in a way I hoped I could bear.”

While I enjoy many parts of this story, especially more toward the beginning, I find it much too long and at times. There are quite a lot of details as Metz’s attempts to reclaim her family history. Between the time that Eve passes in 2006, and when the book publishes (due April, 2021), so much time transpires. Thus, we bare witness to Metz’s life and research process of nearly 15 years. Call it Covid-overload, but this was a bit more to chew on than my attention span can handle at this point in 2020.

[David Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A genuine act of posthumous love.
This is both a memoir and a history lesson about the author's mother and her escape from Nazi occupied Austria in 1940. Told with eloquent prose and a heartfelt rendering of what her mother and grandparents went through to survive and eventually make their way to New York City. It's about the author's coming to terms with the history of a mother she was constantly at odds with growing up. It's a journey of research and understanding about the life her mother rarely spoke about and how her experiences made her the woman and mother she was. It's a comparison of the politics that led to the rise of Hitler to the politics of the moment. It's a beautiful love story.
When her mother passed away, while going through her mother's things the author came across some keepsakes that her mother had kept secretly hidden. In it was memorabilia that her mother kept from when she was a twelve-year-old Jewish girl living in Vienna. This led the author down a path of understanding and reconciliation.
A tremendous amount of travel and research went into the writing of this book making for a compelling and valuable read. I've read quite a few books and memoirs about WWII and what life was like for those living through this time period but I have to say this is one of my favorites. I highly recommend you read this memorable story.
.
.
Thank you to the author, Atria Books and Suzy Approved Book Tours for the gifted copy and including me on this tour.

[Sherri Puzey · Rating 4 out of 5]

100 // “My mother was resilient—she had survived, and in so many spheres of her life she had thrived—but the trauma of what she witnessed and personally experienced as a child left her changed, and forever, and left its indelible mark on me, and so many others in the second generation of Holocaust survivors.”

EVA AND EVE weaves both personal memoir and family history together as @juliemetzwriter searches for answers to the questions she has about her mother’s childhood escape from Nazi-occupied Vienna. the research that went into this book is extraordinary; Julie traced people and places and more to write about the miracles that led to her family’s escape and the trauma that endured for years later. aside from the research and the family history, I also really enjoyed the mother-daughter relationship dynamics explored in this book, both with Julie’s mother and her daughter. Julie joined us for the book club hosted by @juliewriteswords and I so appreciated the poise and patience with which she answered our many questions. if you enjoy reading memoirs or learning about history from this time period, be sure to read this one!

[Ellen]

“My journey here has unearthed a story of the will to survive in the face of unspeakable evil.”

With this sentence, almost the last in her new book, author Julie Metz perfectly captures the mystery & power of her mother’s refugee story, told beautifully in Metz’s new memoir Eva and Eve: A Search for My Mother’s Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind.

Upon discovering a “poesie album”—a keepsake book— in the possessions of her recently deceased mother, Eva SInger, Metz began a years-long investigation that would take her many places, including back to her ancestors’ European roots. The city of Vienna was home to the largest population of German-speaking Jews on the continent at the time Hitler began his quest for domination; Eva’s family members were among them. The narrative toggles seamlessly back & forth in time, as Metz poignantly weaves her own present-day life & struggles with her mother’s traumatic childhood escape from Austria & assimilation into American life. Along the way, we are schooled on a specific chapter in history: the chilling efficiency employed by the Nazis in their takeover of this part of the world, the great adversity faced by those fleeing for their lives, & the manner in which her mother & her parents were able to do so. Metz also doesn’t hesitate to draw parallels between recent developments in leadership & immigration practices in the US & the pre-holocaust events she researched in Europe.

I have read plenty of nonfiction & historical fiction set before or during WWII, much of it having to do with the agonies experienced by Jewish people at this time. Memoirs are also a genre I consume regularly, & so I fancy myself a bit of a discerning reader in both arenas. Reading this memoir was an unexpected gift, both for the engrossing imagery--Metz deftly brought her ancestors and their time and place alive for me--and for Metz’s empathetic connection to the past and to the reader. Sensitive, insightful, touching, Eva and Eve was a page-turning pleasure of a
memoir/WWII biography for me.

[wellreadtraveler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was obsessed with this book the minute I got my hands on it. The cover is gorgeous and I found myself running my hand over the textured book on the front. I adore Ephemera and this book definitely had me swooning. Ephemera for those who aren’t familiar is the art of collecting old papers, postcards, playing cards, ticket stubs, basically any vintage paper item. I love finding old postcards that were sent between friends and reading what little message they sent via the mail. Old stamps, sheets of music and inscriptions in vintage books are also my favorite.
Eva and Eve is written by Julie Metz and it’s a book dedicated to her mother and a life she lived that she never spoke about. Eve had a successful career working at Simon and Schuster and was a well put together woman. When Eve became ill Julie found herself at her mothers bedside daily wishing she had been closer with her mother. On the final weeks of Eves life Julie finds a book tucked way back in a drawer and discovers old papers, photos, and cards written out to Eva. In an instant Julie realizes her mother has kept a lifetime all to herself, one even her father didn’t know much about. On a quest to discover the answers Julie sets off on a journey to piece together photos and letters her mother had saved to find out who she really was, what she went through, and how her family escaped Nazi-occupied Vienna.
Thank you Julie for sharing your mother’s story and taking the reader on a scavenger hunt with you. How exciting to find out what a rich history you have, although I wish your mother could have shared these stories with you before it was too late. The book was well written and so descriptive that at times I could picture the buildings, the smells at the cafe, and even the heavy burden of sadness and hopelessness the people at this time felt.
A beautiful dedication of a mother from her daughter for all of us to enjoy.

[Anissa Telle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eva and Eve by Julie Metz is an interesting examination on multiple levels of a forced immigration from Vienna to New York during the Nazi regime by a Jewish family. As the title alludes, a transformation from Eva, a Viennese young girl, to Eve, an American immigrant, is the focus. But, this book is much more, it examines the search for answers in a time of secrecy and the regret that comes when it seems all the doors are closed to you.

Metz undergoes a complex journey into the history of her mother and grandparents after their death. She is inspired by finding a keepsake book which is the impetus to begin a search that leads her back to her heritage in Vienna. Metz also makes multiple direct references to the stress of living in the United States in the current political climate and how she believes that relates to the Nazi regime. This makes the book a bit disjointed but I do agree that the world is full of uncertainty, just not sure the argument was fully fleshed out.

The underlying message of not knowing your roots and how that can stunt your current growth was detailed masterfully. Her devoted efforts and willingness to find answers in the face of tragic optimism were admirable, Her mother was a victim of circumstance, but did not allow that to color her whole life, she found a way to heal and ultimately to rise above her circumstances. We can learn much from her example, I am grateful for the opportunity to find ways to maintain hope and find meaning despite a life that is not easy as a mother to two special needs children. If you are looking for a similar inspirational book about resilience in the midst of hardship, I would recommend Eva and Eve.

I was provided a free advance reader copy from Atria Books in exchange for my honest review on Net Galley. The opinions shared in this review are my own.

[Louisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advance reader's copy of this. I loved the second half of the memoir of her mother and her mother's family's remarkable escape from Vienna during WWII. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the historical research the author did on how her grandfather clearly worked tirelessly to finance, and secure passports, visas and passage on one of the last ships to leave Europe, as well as the family's experiences on Ellis Island and as new emigrants. In addition, the home and business of the author's grandfather in Vienna and the author's visits there were beautifully researched and described; it was another character in this story. I hope the final copy includes more photographs other than the one of the author's mother as a girl. But, like another reviewer I found the "imagined" memoir sections, and the political asides distracting from the power of just the family story itself. It was clear that the author regretted questions she did not ask of her mother and this regret is universal to so many people where one wishes that one had listened more attentively to family stories or asked more questions before it is too late. But, I think the author was brave in her transparency of harrowing memories of her own and her mother's and I am glad that I read this book which is a beautiful tribute to the author's mother.

[workreadsleeprepeat (Shannon H) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eva and Eve Review and Feature! 🖨📝

Thank you so much to @suzyapprovedbooktours for a finished copy of Eva and Eve!
My goal of 2021 has been to read more fiction and memoirs (which I have been severely slacking at) so when I saw this latest combo of memoir and WWll I had to get my hands on it!

This book was an amazing capture of a daughters hunt to find her family history.
It read much like a nonfiction read but was filled with historical facts and descriptive details to keep you engaged!
I haven’t read many WWll stories based in Austria so it was super interesting to learn about a side of this history that I didn’t know about previously.
I also love that the book easily transitioned between the past and the present making each chapter and paragraph flow seamlessly.
The audio narrator for this book did an amazing job differentiating people throughout the story and keeping you from getting confused!

Thank you again to @suzyapprovedbooktours for a finished copy!
Absolutely adding this one to my favorite memoir section on my shelves!

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful. If I had to sum up this book that is part memoir, part fascinating history lesson, that is the word I would use.

Writing takes a set of skills that include not just the ability to get words down on paper but also one must be a keen researcher, must be very attuned to the feelings and imagined intimate moments of others, and also must be able to be open to vulnerability.

Metz took her own history and the tiny bits she knew of her mother’s life growing up in Nazi-occupied Austria and gave us a deep look into a scary time in history, one that she was able to compare to the world now. In short, this is a powerful look at history and its tendency to repeat itself.

Trigger warnings for many things including sexual assault.

I received a gifted copy in exchange for my review.

[Rajiv · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Blog]::[Youtube]::[Twitter]::[Instagram]::[Pinterest]::[Bloglovin]




“Eva and Eve” is a beautiful heartfelt memoir about the author discovering her mother’s past in Austria at the time of the Nazis.

Firstly, I commend the way the story is structured. The author nicely divides the tale into four parts where we get a different timeline of accounts from various perspectives. I loved how the book was structured because it felt like reading the author’s keepsake book. The photographs also added personal touch, and I loved all the other details the author put into the book.

Secondly, I admire how personal the author when narrating the story. Part of the book is interesting in how she uses the clues and travels around Austria and Trieste to get more information on her mother’s past. But the other half is the gripping accounts that happened to the previous generations in the family when they had to escape from Austria. For me, some of the memorable moments were when the author searches for Donald or when she tours the Jewish museum in Trieste.

Moreover, I appreciated smaller moments to the story, like when Stelio tells her the woman who owned a shipyard. I also learned something new, like the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, which I was unaware of before. The author also correlates the events during that era to our present life. For instance, she connects it to the unrest in society and how the recent pandemic also added stress.

Overall, “Eva and Eve” is a short yet powerful story that gives an insight into how people in that situation struggled and survived.

[Allie B • Literally Booked Solid · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the death of her mother, author Julie Metz goes on a cross-continent search for the truth of her mother's childhood lost in Vienna, Austria with the start of WWII. Despite roadblocks and lack of records, Metz is able to piece together the history of her mother's life that she never knew.

This book is more than a memoir. It mixes together tales of Julie’s journey to find her family’s history and the story of their past, along with rich historical background. In researching her mother’s history, Metz learned not only about the world wars, but then also the aftermath these wars placed on Vienna’s economic, political and social landscape, especially those of Jewish faith. It tells the history that doesn't often get told, including what happened in Vienna between WWI and WWII.

As a history teacher, I have a wide historical knowledge of this time period. But many times as historians, we know the facts, but forget about the human element of the events. Metz did a wonderful job humanizing the Holocaust and its aftermath through the story of her mother. Through her family's story you witness the tough decisions facing families, plus their struggles once finally coming to America as immigrants. With the arrival of the Nazis in Vienna, parents and families were forced to make decisions to save their children that forever impacted the fabric of their family’s future and dynamics. Some children stayed and others were sent away. Families were separated.

What I appreciated most was Metz's reflection of her relationship with her mother and the newfound appreciation she gained for Eve's struggles in life. Her interviews and research gave her a deeper knowledge and understanding of her mother’s spirit and tenacity in the face of danger. As someone who has recently lost their mother, this was a book that made me think and reflect on my own relationship with my mother and her life.

There are some heavier topics discussed in the book, including loss of a parent from cancer and rape.

Thank you to the author and Suzy Approved Book Tours for the gifted copy.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mother and daughter stories will always be popular, both fiction and nonfiction. Julie Metz's new nonfiction, Eva and Eve- A Search For My Mother's Lost Childhood and What A War Left Behind takes Julie Metz from her mother's childhood home in Vienna to Trieste in Italy to Manhattan where her mother ended up when she escaped to America during WWII.

Julie's mother Eve and her family lived in the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria. There was a vibrant Jewish community of 200,000 people there in the 1930s. (Post-war, it was 9000.) When Hilter came to power in Germany, his Nazi party wanted to reunify the Germans living in Austria, and so the anschlauss (annexation) of Austria began.

The property of Jewish people were stolen by the Nazis- homes, businesses, property- and Eva's older brothers were sent to London to protect them from a Nazi neighbor who had a grudge against them. Eva and her parents stayed in Vienna, and soon they were trapped in their home, ten year-old Eva unable to even go to school.

Eva's father Julius, with the help of some of the people who worked in the paper factory he owned, managed to raise enough money and get passports to get Julius, his wife Anna, and Eva to Italy and then on a boat to America where they settled in Brooklyn.

After her mother died, Metz found a notebook in her mother's dresser drawer, filled with notes to Eva from her friends before the family left for America. Metz had a difficult relationship with her mother, who worked as an art director at Simon & Schuster publishers for many years, working her way up to an important position in the company.

Metz decided to find out more about her Eve's life as a child, when she was known as Eva, to better understand her mother. Julie traveled to Vienna and found the home where Eva lived with her parents and the factory her father owned. With the help of some kind people, she was able to uncover through photos and artifacts what life was like for her mother and grandparents.

She found photos and archival information about life for Jewish people during the anschlauss. She learned the details of how systematically the Nazis took everything away bit by bit from the Austrian Jewish population, deported them, and began to send them to concentration camps.

Metz also visited Trieste, Italy, where her mother's family traveled and stayed for nine days, awaiting the ship that would take them to America. She followed in their footsteps to better understand what happened to them and others.

Using both information she could verify and the feelings that she imagined her mother and family had as they watched their lives being taken away from them, Metz puts the reader into the minds of Eva and her family. We feel what they feel.

Eva and Eve is also part travelogue. Metz takes the reader to Vienna and Trieste, two cities I didn't know much about. We get a real taste for the food and culture of both cities.

If you only know about what happened in Austria during WWII from watching The Sound of Music or the one paragraph in your high school history book, reading Eva and Eve will give you a better perspective. On a microlevel, it examines how that trauma shaped the life of Eve, and how that affected her relationship with her daughter. I recommend it.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eva becomes Eve as she leaves behind everything in Vienna in 1940 and come to the United States. Her daughter excavates her life and tries to understand and explore her journey. A different kind of WWII Holocaust book that points out the similarities between the hate that existed then and the climate in our world today. I don't usually read nonfiction, but this was fascinating.

[Emily | emilyisoverbooked]

After Julies’s mother, Eve, passes away of cancer, Julie finds a linen-bound journal in the back of her mother’s closet in New York City. The journal is filled with keepsakes and letters from her childhood, and sends Julie on a journey to learn more about her mother’s childhood in Nazi-occupied Vienna and as a refugee and immigrant to the United States. This story weaves Julie’s personal memoir with the discoveries of her family history.

I love the photos included in the middle of the book to add to the visual history of this memoir as Julie takes the reader back and forth between wartime Europe and past and present-day America. If you are a history buff or a nonfiction reader who likes WWII, this book is for you.

Thank you to Suzy Approved Book Tours, Julie Metz, and Atria Books for the copy of this book!

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to hear the story of a family’s escape from Europe during WWII and the impact that had on their lives and the generations to come.

[Barbara Stark-Nemon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julie Metz’s Eva and Eve: A Search for My Mother's Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind is an impactful revelation of the deeply researched and richly imagined lives of her mother’s family, in 20th century Vienna and then their escape to the US and reestablishment as immigrants. Lavished with beautiful imagery, this fascinating memoir soberly plumbs the trauma of cultured, comfortable lives uprooted by the Nazis and the legacy of that trauma in the immigrant world of post-war New York. Any family with a similar history will recognize the ripple effect of the secrets, the loss, the stoicism and the persistence of children who lived through those times into following generations. Metz explores and reveals those effects in her mother, herself and her relationship with her own daughter as well as in the prism through which she sees our current political and social climate. A stunning story, beautifully told. Bonus- the excellent audiobook narration of Rebecca LowmanEva and Eve: A Search for My Mother's Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book incredibly moving and engaging. I could not put it down. I will seek out other works by Julie Metz as I enjoyed her writing immensely.

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. Thank you so much to the author/publisher for providing my copy.

[Nicole reading_with_nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir is about Julie's grandmother, grandfather and her mother and their escape from Vienna fleeing the nazis... Reading stories like this is always hard for me, because it is heartbreaking even all these years later, it tears my soul to think how people had to flee for their lives because of their religion..
Julie captures and details her families story so eloquently, I felt her emotions through her writing.. I am grateful that she took the time to share what happen with us.. Eva and Eve are one in the same, and Julie wanted to know what happened to her mother, who was Eva when she was young growing up in Vienna and when she came to America she changed her name to Eve.. Though the discovery of her mother's hidden journal after her passing Julie pieces together her mother's life and all she endured..
This memoir is brilliant and it is packed with history.. Memoir and historical history lovers will enjoy this book..

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Julie Metz and TLCBooktours for this gifted copy of Eva and Eve, a memoir that spans multiple decades and takes us from New York to Nazi-occupied Vienna.

Julie Metz takes a trip of a lifetime, retracing her late mother's footsteps as a Jewish girl in the 1930's, to an immigrant living in Manhattan. In her research, Julie discovers harrowing and beautiful stories of her ancestors during the rise of Hitler. She addresses similarities between anti-semitism and views on immigration then and now. Her mother's family wasn't welcomed into America with open arms. They were invited in with scorn and judgment and an overall fear that they would take away resources and opportunities from Americans.

These similarities fascinated me. The entire book fascinated me. I admire Julie's dedication in learning her mother's story, as that knowledge helped her understand her mother more.

Read Eva and Eve if you like reading stories about families during WW2. It also reminded me at times of Kristin Hannah's book, Winter Garden.

Pairs well with matzo soup and a vote for Joe Biden.

"I hope we will see some paradigm-shifting in how we see the Jews of Vienna, not so much how they were different, but to focus on similarity."

I love this quote so much.

TW/CW: references of war, rape

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eva and Eve: A Search for My Mother's Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind from Julie Metz does what good memoir and history is supposed to do, revisit the past and bring it into conversation with the present. In this case the history and the journey are both personal and societal.

First of all, I have to vent about something I don't understand. How can one love to read about a specific time period or event (writ large) without some part of that being about what the past can tell us about the present or any possible futures? In other words, if one likes to read Holocaust stories but feels that bringing what they say into the present is beside the point, what exactly is the point? Do they simply get enjoyment from reading about other people's pain and suffering without learning anything from it? Okay, I'm finished, I just don't understand some things very well.

This memoir is ever so subtly layered while making many of the lessons, both personal and societal, very explicit. I was, of course, caught up in the dynamics of Metz' family history, how they handled a horrendous situation, how they managed to do what they did for their family. My interest, at first, was primarily historical through a personal lens, if that makes sense.

I found myself very quickly invested in her present as well, the wonderfully difficult task of raising a child, of coping with the curves life, in the best of times, can throw at you. At this point, I was as invested in her family life as I was in her mother's family life. The historical had become very personal and the personal is always political.

I found parts of the book more engaging than others but not in a like versus dislike way, more of a like and like a lot way. I also think that the writing is such that, when I reread this, I may well prefer other sections. Such is the nature of reading, it isn't simply the words on the page/screen, it is also where I am in my life while reading it, and where my society is while I am reading it. And right now the present feels surreal.

I would recommend this to readers who like to read about life under Nazi rule as well as those who like memoirs that highlight family dynamics and the many little epiphanies that make up a life.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Kristina Civille · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the style of this book as I felt like I was on the journey of discovery with Julie Metz. She did a beautiful job of combining her own experiences with the historical events that she found in the keepsake book in addition to her own research. For all my historical fiction fans, you will devour this memoir/non-fiction WWII book!

[Linda Zagon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “Eva and Eve” by Julie Metz, Atria Books, April 6, 2021. On Tour with Suzy Approved Book Tours

Julie Metz, the author of “Eva and Eve” has written a heartfelt, emotional, and poignant memoir. Julie Metz writes about the present when she finds a diary filled with good-bye notes from friends and relatives to her mother, after her mother’s death. Julie has always questioned her relationship with her mother, but now the author becomes obsessed with what happened during her mother’s childhood, and how devastating and tragic war can be. The author is determined to find out what happened in the past.

The author’s mother seemed to enjoy and assimilate into New York’s cultural and artistic population and enjoyed the best restaurants and stores. Her mother Eve, was known as Eva as a 12-year-old girl, coming of age in Vienna, during the time when there was the Nazi occupation. Eva’s family was Jewish, and there was rising anti-semitism. It was a dangerous and deadly time.

Julie Metz does trace several generations of her family. Her family’s printing press was significant and important to Germany. Also discussed is that there were good people that did make a difference, just as there were evil people that caused destruction.

The author mentions immigration at that time and compares it to problems in the present. I would recommend this informative and intriguing memoir to other readers.